Bill for guard rail adds to high cost of crash

For $213.63, I should at least get a little recognition. I'll even suggest the wording: "This guard rail was paid for by Laura Kessel."

For now, though, I'll know in my heart every time I pass that galvanized steel beauty on eastbound State Route 2, just west of the eastbound Vine Street exit ramp, that it's alllllllllllll mine.

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Oh, you didn't know that if you strike a guard rail on the highway, you have to replace it?

Neither did I.

The envelope contained a gripping tale, complete with a nifty rendering of the crash in which my car, shaped like a house, spun here and there on Route 2 before slamming into the concrete barrier in the middle of the highway.

Highlights of the report were the "4" under the damage scale category, and the "15" under contributing circumstances. The 4 signaled "disabling damage." The 15 blamed it on "failure to control."

The police officer was so nice when he said he wouldn't cite me because the highway was a sheet of ice. But, lack of citation doesn't remove my responsibility.

The invoice that arrived from the Lake County Engineer's Office left me with a few questions.

Which barrier was I replacing?

Why was I paying for damage when I wasn't cited?

How much money does the Engineer's Office make off this type of crash?

Chief Deputy Engineer Bruce Landeg couldn't have been more pleasant when he took my call, in which I assured him I planned to take care of the bill, but was fascinated about this procedure.

Which barrier had I replaced?

"Well, you're opening a can of worms with that question. You might get another bill now."

He said he didn't know based on the invoice I quoted. For now, I'll consider the steel guard rail mine, at least until the bill arrives for the concrete one. Then they're both alllllllllllll mine.

As for the second question, I can only offer this version of a line from "Field of Dreams."

If you hit it, the bill will come.

Landeg said his office maintains Route 2 within the county borders, and when there's damage, it seeks reimbursement whenever possible.

In 2008, the office collected $16,356. The amount it collects varies by year, Landeg said, and is pretty dependent on weather. In years with bad winters, such as 2004, the amount is higher ($21,063). Good weather years, such as 2006 ($9,252), mean fewer collections.

This money isn't profit for the county. Rather, it's payment for correcting damage and the labor that is needed to make it happen.

In my case, the labor cost was $97.83.

There's a bit of a Catch-22 for the Engineer's Office regarding this type of repair.

The dream scenario is that when someone strikes a median or a guard rail or even a road sign, they call the police and file a report. The cities take those reports and fax them to the Engineer's Office, which then performs the repair and bills the offending party for the parts and labor.

The nightmare comes when either the driver doesn't report the incident or police don't forward the report.

That's when Lake County residents pick up the tab.

Last year, the county spent $1,343,381 to maintain Route 2. It spent $48,620 on repairs of guard rails and cable barriers.

Landeg said his office is responsible for 50 percent of the repair cost if no report is filed. The other 50 percent is divided among the cities that lie along Route 2, on an uneven scale based on how much mileage each city has along the highway.

So, as Landeg said, Mentor gets a bigger bill than Wickliffe.

The key in this process is getting the police departments to forward the reports to the Engineer's Office. Pushing a few buttons on the fax machine could save the county -- and their cities -- a bunch of money.

So, it's with great pride that I make arrangements to pay this bill -- because it saves the residents of Lake County the headache of footing the bill for my "failure to control."